Dr Ben Harbisher

Ben is a Senior Lecturer in Media Production and Media Discourse at De Montfort University. Ben has worked in Education for over twenty years across a range of disciplines including Media Production, Digital Design, Media Studies, and Film Production. Ben has also worked in a freelance capacity as an editor and journalist and currently runs the BSc (Hons) in Visual Effects.

Media Discourse Centre (MDC)

• Coronavirus, Crisis and Culture: Protests, Policing and Mediation during the 2020 Pandemic. Harbisher, B. and Price, S. (2022). London: Rowman Littlefield International
• The Mediation of the United Nation’s Sustainability Goals. Harbisher, B. (Ed). (2021). London: Rowman Littlefield International
• ‘Biopolitics, Eugenics and the New State Racism’. Power, Media and the Covid 19 Pandemic: Framing Public Discourse. Harbisher, B. and Price, S. (2021). London: Routledge
• ‘Behavioural Science, Normative Discourse, and the Art of Consent’. Social Control Policies in Times of Pandemics. Hellman, M., Kettunen, T., Salmivaara, S. and Stoneham, J (eds). (2021). London: Oxford University Press
• ‘Researching the Deep State: Surveillance, Politics, and Dissent’ Journalism, Power and Investigation: Global and Activist Perspectives, in Price, S (2019). London: Routledge
• Using Online Techniques to Make Something Happen in the Real or Cyber World'’ Surveillance in Action. Panagoitis, K. (2018). New York: Springer
• ‘Million Mask March: language, Legitimacy and Dissent’ Critical Discourse Studies, 13:3, 294-309, 2016
• ‘Unthinking Extremism: Radicalising Narratives that Legitimise Surveillance’. Surveillance & Society 13(3/4): 474-486, 2015 
• ‘The Bureaucratization of Dissent’ The Journal for the Study of British Cultures: Big Brother is Watching you (Again) Volume 19. No 1/2012.
• ‘Radicals, Revolutionaries and Misanthropes: towards a genealogy of public order & surveillance in Nottingham’ Hard Times No 92/ 2012.

Ben’s research examines the role of the media in disseminating public order and security narratives. Ben’s work ranges from critical discourses of security and policing, to environmentalism and political action. He is Principle Investigator for the GCRF funded SDG Film Festival, and runs The Global Promotion and Mediation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals conference series.

Media Production, Visual Effects, Media & Society, Research Methods, Digital Media, Politics, Sociology, Investigative Journalism, Surveillance and Criminology

• PhD in Critical Theory, University of Nottingham
• MA in Critical Theory, University of Nottingham
• BA in Journalism Falmouth University

Media Production Visual Effects Global Dissent MA Investigative Journalism

• MeCCSA – Media and Communication Cultural Studies Association, Executive Board, 2020
• Elected Staff Governor, Nottingham College 2013-2015

• Deputy Director of Media Discourse Group, De Montfort University (2020 – present)
• Chair of the Meccsa Practice Network
• Member of the Meccsa Social Movements Network
• Member of the Surveillance Studies Network
• Member of the German Centre for the Study of British Cultures
• Member of the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies
• Member of the Resistance Studies Network 
• Member of the Nottingham Screen Partnership

PGCE in Education

• #SDGFilmfest, international film festival, Global Challenges Research Fund (£24,000)
• Global Challenges Research Fund continuity fund (£3,000)
• MoStock, Faculty Enterprise Motion Capture Project (£10,000)

• ‘PR, Marketing and Behavioural Science during the UK Pandemic’. Conference Speaker. ASEAN Public Relations Network. London School of Public Relations, Jakarta, 14 April 2021
• ‘The Rise and Fall of Multiplex’. Conference Speaker, #SDGFilmfest, Online, 17 December 2020
• ‘Critical Sustainability: Dimensions of Social and Political Theory’. Conference Speaker. The Global Promotion and Mediation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals - Part Three. International Conference. Online, 17 December 2020
• ‘Greenwashing Bali: Corporate Responsibility, SDG’s and the Subversion of Indigenous Dissent’. Conference Speaker. The Global Promotion and Mediation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals - Part Two, International Conference, Guildhall Leicester, 17 September 2019
• ‘Resilience, Sustainability and Supervision’. Conference Speaker. The Global Promotion and Mediation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals - Part One, International Conference, Online, 9 April, 2019
• ‘Fusion Centre Surveillance, Terrorism, and Dissent’. Conference Speaker. MeCCSA - Race, Ethnicity and Postcolonial Network, Radicalisation in Culture and Media, Media Discourse Centre, De Montfort University. Tuesday 28th June 2016 
• ‘Public Transport and Surveillance’. Conference Speaker. 7th Biennial Surveillance & Society Conference. University of Barcelona, 20-23 April 2016
• ‘Public order, cyber security and surveillance. Conference Speaker’. “Surveillance and Security in the Age of Algorithmic Communication”. IAMCR Annual Conference. Leicester University, 26 of July 2016
• ‘Defining Activists as Terrorists: UK Government Discourse on Extremism’. Conference Speaker. Cultures of Denial. Media Discourse Centre, De Montfort University, 27 November 2015 
• ‘Unthinking Extremism: Radicalizing Narratives that Legitimise Surveillance’. Conference Speaker. Surveillance: Ambiguities and Asymmetries. Surveillance Studies Network, University of Barcelona, 24 – 26 April 2014 
• ‘Public, Legal, and Political Debates around Surveillance’ Big Brother is Watching You (Again). Conference Speaker, Association for the Study of British Culture, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Friday 18 November 2011

• PhD Completion: Dr Jenifer Amapamoere Ere, as 1st Supervisor, 2020
• PhD Completion: Dr Ahmed Bahiya, as 2nd Supervisor, 2018
• PhD Supervision: Jamie Lochhead, as 1st Supervisor, enrolled 2020
• PhD Supervision: Francis Thomas, as 1st Supervisor, enrolled 2020
• PhD Supervision: Rayna Lountzis, as 2nd Supervisor, enrolled 2019
• PhD Supervision: Zoe Armour, as 2nd Supervisor, enrolled 2015

Audience of the Future Motion Capture Project, UKRI (£200,000)